Barnes says he was kidding, never meant to offend Razorback fans

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Barnes irritated folks in Arkansas earlier this week when he threatened to pull out of next season's game against the Razorbacks if fans in North Little Rock weren't nice to his Longhorns.

Except Barnes didn't mean a word of it.

"If (in) any way what I said the other day offended anybody, I want to apologize," he said Thursday. "I really was kidding about it, but I was on the phone and maybe no one could see that or hear me laughing."

Arkansas and Texas were fierce rivals in the old Southwest Conference. The border battle dated back to the teams' first football game in 1894, and colorful basketball coaches and wild games simply added to the intensity. When the Razorbacks were sent to Austin for past NCAA tournaments, they were booed with a vengeance.

The Southwest Conference is history _ Texas is now in the Big 12 while Arkansas is part of the Southeastern Conference _ but the rivalry is not. When the Longhorns were assigned to the North Little Rock site, Barnes joked that fans better be good to them or "we're not going to come" next year. "I'm serious. We've got enough money here, we can buy our way out of it."

Second-seeded Texas plays 15th-seeded Austin Peay on Friday in the first round of the South Regional.

"I'm aware of the rivalry of years ago with Arkansas and Texas in the Southwest Conference days, and I certainly understand the appreciation that Arkansas fans have for their team," Barnes said. "I didn't in any way want to offend anybody about it because I wouldn't do that. Because as proud as we are of our tradition at Texas, the state of Arkansas, the University of Arkansas, has that same type of pride in their teams."

All that being said, Barnes doesn't expect Texas to be the fan favorites Friday.

But that's because of the Longhorns' seed, not any deep-seated rivalry.

"Early rounds, people want to see the big upsets," Barnes said. "So when you get into this and you're a higher-seeded team, you realize that you're going to have to play through that. We expected that regardless of where we would be."